Oxfam Strategic Plan Evaluation: Sustainable Food (CG4) Outcome Area

FEBRUARY 2016
OXFAM
STRATEGIC PLAN
EVALUATION:
SUSTAINABLE
FOOD (CG 4)
OUTCOME AREA
JANS MAES
Independent Consultant
The citation for this paper is: Maes, Jan (2016). Oxfam Strategic Plan (OSP) Evaluation: Sustainable
Food Outcome Area. Oxfam, February.
i
FEBRUARY 2016
ACRONYMS
BRICSAM Brazil, Russia, India, china, South Africa and Mexico
BtB Behind the Brands
CAMSA Common Approach to MEL and Social Accountability
CARP Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
CASHE Commercialisation of agricultural smallholders in Ethiopia
CG Change Goal
CSO Civil Society Organization
CSRL Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood
DRR Disaster Risk Reduction
EB Executive Board
EC European Community
ED Executive Directors
EDP Enterprise Development Program
EFSL Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods
EJ Economic Justice
EWS Early Warning System
FFH Food Female Hero
GBV Gender-based violence
GJ Gender Justice
ICTs Information and communication technologies
(I)NGO (International) Non-Governmental Organization
JCAS Joint Country Analysis and Strategy
LWF Land, Water and Food
M4P Making Markets Work for the Poor
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MEL Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
MSN Multi Stakeholder Network
OAU Oxfam Australia
OB Oxfam Belgium
OCA Oxfam Canada
OGB Oxfam Great Britain
OHK Oxfam Hong Kong
OI Oxfam International
ON Oxfam Novib (Netherlands)
OPA One Program Approach
OPAL Oxfam People Accountability Learning
OPT Occupied Palestinian Territories
OSP Oxfam Strategic Plan
RESOLVE Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihood for Vulnerable Ecosystems
ToC Theory of Change
UN United Nations
VFS Voices for Food Security
WIN Worldwide Influencing Network
iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report examines a set of evaluations, meta reviews and country strategies pertaining to Change Goal 4,
Sustainable Food, of the 2013-2019 Oxfam Strategic Plan. This is the first review of CG4, with a second one
planned for 2019.
PURPOSE
Going into the third year of this six-year plan, this review asks how Oxfam is doing in terms of its intended shift
from service delivery to influencing strategies, and how much progress has been made so far in terms of
achieving greater food security, income, prosperity and resilience at a large scale, the expected impact of CG4.
In terms of the planned strategic shift from service delivery to influencing, this review also analyses Oxfam
Country Strategies (OCS) to gauge whether they are firmly committing to this new way of doing things. Based
on these findings, recommendations have been made for Oxfam to further move towards an influencing
strategy, rather than direct implementation, to achieve the Sustainable Food Change Goal, and to adapt its
evaluation methodology accordingly.
METHODOLOGY
The review focused entirely on a desk study of existing reviews of evaluations and country strategies as well as
a set of evaluations of programs (that use some degree of influencing) contributing to income and food security.
Only methodologically sound evaluations were reviewed by focusing on indicative program/project outcomes of
food security and income, and types of program approaches and influencing efforts. The evaluations span a
significant number of Oxfam affiliates (at least seven), seven regions and at least 15 countries.
Since the evaluations selected for this review were conducted between January 2013 and October 2015, the
evaluated projects and programs themselves were mostly started and sometimes already finished before the
OSP 2013-15 timespan. As a result, the evaluations in this review should not be looked at as if they reflect the
new Oxfam (envisioned in the OSP) versus the old, but they are rather a reflection of trends and changes as
they have been emerging before the OSP and to a lesser extent during first two years in its implementation.
Most program evaluations included an outcome assessment of indicators of food security and/or income or
intermediary outcome indicators along impact chains that were assumed as leading to those impacts (such as
increased productivity, access to markets, knowledge, etc.). The campaign evaluations did not report on any
such indicators, but focused mostly on effectiveness of influencing strategies (such as advocacy, mobilization,
capacity building), their immediate results (responses by different target audiences, from government, private
sector, civic society and the public at large), and intermediary outcomes.
KEY FINDINGS
This review shows that there was already a shift taking place from service delivery to influencing in CG4
programming, even before the OSP came into effect. The evaluations used for this review indicate that this shift
is far from complete and faces some important challenges. Long term programs and campaigns are not yet
sufficiently linked to maximize influencing and make it the central strategy to achieve the CG4. Programs and
Campaigns are still being implemented to a large extent in siloes, and the evaluations available for this review
reflect this by focusing on either one or other.
FEBRUARY 2016
Programs show a shift towards influencing, but direct delivery and implementation strategies are still
prominent. On the other hand, a number of projects are focusing more on demonstration and learning instead
of implementing direct services, and are linking those with advocacy. Market development programs are
gaining traction, but they do not always fully exploit opportunities to influence market actors and enabling
environment. Remaining challenges for programs to make influencing their core strategy include continuing
pressures to achieve short-term results, an insufficient commitment or ability to reorient the role of projects
as small-scale pilots, and insufficient synergies and collaboration between programs and campaigns as
intended by the OPA.
Campaigns have focused mostly on building the capacity of civil society (including farmers and womens
organizations) to claim rights and influence policy, but face some critical challenges, including a lack of
focus, follow-up, and local ownership.
A review of recent OCS shows a clear commitment towards further extending the shift from service
delivery to influencing to achieve the impact expected by CG4. There is a a much greater focus on
advocacy and engagement of farmers groups in decision making processes, while there is an intention to
view projects as learning and demonstration pilots to leverage influencing. Influencing and long-term
programming are also seen as linked instead of separate activities.
Evidence remains scarce about the extent that CG4 programs and campaigns are successful at improving
income and food security at scale. With only two years into the current OSP one should not expect to
observe whether expected impact at scale is already emerging. Moreover, since most evaluations reflect on
projects and campaigns implemented before the OSP took effect, the findings can only inform about the results
from already existing programs and campaigns that had already started to shift towards increased use of
influencing strategies.
Direct delivery/implementation approaches have only produced modest results in terms of food security
and incomes; indirect influencing strategies (like the GROW campaign) are hardly showing any such
impacts. This is not surprising given the longer time that would be required to see these kind of results, but
there are doubts whether this type of impact can be realistically achieved at scale within the timeframe of the
OSP, and whether they can even be measured.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Future programming needs to overcome some of the key obstacles that are still preventing a stronger emphasis
on influencing. There is a need to redirect the role of programs further in function of an influencing
agenda (through demonstration, evidence gathering and focus on replicability and scalability). If the main role of
programming is indeed to provide evidence and be as such a means towards an end, more guidance is
needed on how programmes need to be designed, implemented (and especially at what scale) and
evaluated, in order to most effectively and efficiently play that role.
It is not only necessary to move away from direct service delivery, but also from direct implementation
to facilitation of processes that build capacity of smallholders to exert their rights, governments and private
sector to take up their responsibilities, and systems to become more inclusive and efficient. Campaigns and
programs need to better linked with one another to maximize synergies of a OPA. The same applies to
future evaluations that need to take a more holistic picture of country strategies to achieving the CG4, and stop
evaluating programs and campaigns in isolation, but instead look at the integrated influencing strategy to
achieve the CG.
If food security and income at scale remain key indicative outcomes of CG4, then a new approach to
evaluation is needed, as this impact is not as clearly linked to influencing strategies as it is in direct service
delivery. On the other hand, food security and income might not continue to be the best indicators to gauge
success, but instead the achievement of certain indirect, intermediary outcomes should be the focus of
v
evaluations. The focus has shifted on exclusion, inequality and injustice as the real target, more than simply a
lack of income. If the most effective solutions lie in people demanding their rights to livelihoods and decent work,
then outcome indicators need to be adjusted accordingly.
Country strategies need to more clearly determine which objectives are of highest priority to achieve
key intermediary outcomes, and what Oxfams role should be. Theories of change need to be better
understood and articulated, and should include a better understanding of which intermediary outcomes
matter most, and how they relate to systemic changes. Since impact pathways are seldom linear and
predictable, a more flexible implementation is required that allows for continuously adapting actions to new
learning.
1. PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND
The purpose of this review is to evaluate how Oxfam is measuring up against its Change Goal 4
1
(CG4), Sustainable Food, of the 2013-2019 Oxfam Strategic Plan . Going into the third year of
this six-year plan, how is Oxfam doing in terms of its intended shift from service delivery
to influencing strategies, and how much progress has been made so far in terms of
achieving greater food security, income, prosperity and resilience at a large scale, the
expected impact of CG4. Depending on the answer to those two questions, this review will offer
recommendations for the remainder of the OSP duration. Sustainable Food is one of the six
CGs guiding Oxfam interventions of the OSP, and Oxfam leadership identified food security
and income as the indicative outcome areas to demonstrate Oxfams effectiveness in
promoting positive change within CG4.
Oxfam defines effectiveness as a positive contribution to change, and will not seek to assess
the proportion of observed change which can be attributed solely to the evaluated interventions.
Though these indicative outcome areas are not intended to represent the totality of the work
being done by Oxfam under CG4, they focus on meaningful areas where Oxfam will be able to
present a credible summary of its effectiveness in achieving CG4.
This report looks at relevant evaluations, meta reviews and country strategies pertaining to the
CG4, and is the first review of CG4 and its indicative outcome areas income and food security.
The evaluations available for this review were conducted during the period from January 2013
1 See OSP here: https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/story/oxfam-strategic-

plan-2013-2019_0.pdf
to October 2015. As is the case for the reviews of indicative outcomes of the other CGs,
Oxfams contribution to income and food security will be measured twice during the OSP
lifespan. A second review, covering the period from November 2015 to December 2018, will be
completed by 2019. In terms of the planned strategic shift from service delivery to influencing,
this review also analyses Oxfam Country Strategies (OCS) to gauge whether they are firmly
committing to this new way of doing things.
Change Goal 4 - Sustainable Food

The section serves as a refresher of the objectives, expected impact and strategies under CG4
2
and is taken directly from the OSP. 2013-2019 reiterates that the right of poor people to
adequate food and sustainable livelihoods has been a cornerstone of Oxfams work for a long
time, at the basis of its rural development work, agricultural innovations and campaigns for
international trade justice.
Sustainable Food Objectives for 2019
More small-scale and marginal producers will intensify their production sustainably, adapt
to climate change and increase their resilience to shocks and stresses.
More rural women living in poverty are economically empowered and able to influence the
decisions that affect them.
More small-scale producers, both women and men, are able to develop resilient livelihoods,
with greater food security, participate in agricultural markets, and prosper from policies that
promote small-scale agriculture.
Expected impact by 2019
More people who live in rural poverty will enjoy greater food security, income, prosperity and
resilience through significantly more equitable sustainable food systems.
In order to achieve the objectives and expected impact, the OSP proposes the following
commitments (approaches):
Box 1. Influencing Approaches in OSP to Achieve Change Goal 4 Sustainable

Food
Promote scalable agricultural production systems that sustainably increase yield,

resilience and adaptation to climate change, from subsistence farmers to market-based
small-scale producers
Enable communities to manage land and water resources sustainably and
strengthen the livelihoods of those most chronically at risk of crisis in priority-1 countries
Promote increased investment in female smallholders, support rural womens
organizations and advocate for positive changes in policies and beliefs about
womens roles
Influence states to attract investment and support development of domestic markets
and challenge the private sector to develop inclusive business models
Empower small-scale producers to improve trade regulation, to enter and
influence Fair Trade value chains
Facilitate the development of innovative rural finance models and consumer and fair
trade movements, particularly in the BRICSAMs and major cities
2 ibid
Influence governments, business and multilateral organizations to increase financial
flows to smallholder agriculture and promote policies to benefit the poor by
rebalancing investment and services between small and large scale production
Promote policies that strengthen resilience through risk analysis, reducing price
volatility for basic food commodities and providing protection for the most vulnerable
Improve donor food policies, especially in fragile states
Objectives
With the aim of achieving change at scale Oxfam is moving from a focus on direct service
delivery to an influencing approach in many areas including its work on sustainable food. The
assumption is that targeted influencing at national and global level will leverage increased
income and food security at scale, i.e. for more people, sustainably. This first review of
progress against strategic objectives represents an opportunity for critical reflection and initial
learning on whether Oxfam is doing the rights things (right) as well as identify examples of
where this is working, i.e. to what extent are these strategies successful at achieving the
intended impact of improving income and food security at scale . This is the primary objective
of the review. However, there are two important caveats. First, with only two years into the
current OSP it cannot yet be expected to observe whether these systemic changes (and
expected impact) at scale are indeed materializing. Second, since most evaluations reflect on
projects and campaigns implemented before the OSP took effect, the findings are for the most
part limited to examples of the strategic shift already taking place (from service delivery to
influencing) and results before the OSP. Therefore, in order to make sure that Oxfam will take a
deliberate and effective approach to gauging future achievements in shifting to influencing
approaches and achieving the intended outcomes, the second objective of this review is to
provide guidelines for developing a comprehensive approach for evaluating progress
against CG4. This second objective is not within the scope of this report prepared for the
Executive Board Meeting, but will be included in a future, amended report.
The findings are presented in three chapters. The first chapter explores whether Oxfam is
doing the right things right, i.e. whether and how sustainable food programs are shifting from
service delivery to influencing to achieve change at scale. The second chapter explores where
it is working, i.e. how CG4 programs and campaigns are successful at improving income and
food security at scale. And finally, the third chapter reviews a selection of recent OCS
(developed in response to the OSP) to analyse how they are planning to shift further from
service delivery to influencing in achieving the CG4.
Intended Audiences and Uses for this Review

The primary use of this review is to provide Oxfams Executive Directors with:
a sense of the extent and the ways in which Oxfam is contributing to change in the
outcome area income and food security
an assessment of the balance between the outcomes emerging in the report and their
resonance with the ambitions set out in the OSP, and
an understanding of what Oxfam has to do differently to be able to contribute to the change

we want to see by the end of the OSP
Program Directors may use the information emerging from this review to start thinking
about new programming that Oxfam should start to support and any adjustments to the
OSP objectives/theories of change. Program staff in regions and in countries may use
the findings to improve program quality as well as to speak to local partners and/or
authorities about Oxfam and partners work. Knowledge hubs (particularly on Womens
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Economic Empowerment in Agriculture) can use the information to share with their
followers to influence programming. MEAL colleagues are encouraged to use the
information to support the development of quality evaluation work. MEAL staff will
review the process for lessons and discuss the kind of information needed in 2019, and adjust
the outcome areas approach as necessary.
2. METHODOLOGY
Given a limited time-frame and the absence of a common evaluation framework for this
outcome area, the review focused primarily on a desk study of existing reviews of evaluations
and country strategies as well as a set of evaluations of programs contributing to income and
food security through influencing. Including both evaluations and country strategies allowed for
looking both back and forward and draw actionable lessons and recommendations for
programming and program support during the remainder of the OSP timeline (through 2019).
The review drew from existing meta reviews such as the OGB review of its Global Economic
3
Justice Portfolio , an Oxfam Sense-making Exercise of Evaluations conducted between 2013
4 5
and 2014 and a recently completed review of Oxfam Country Strategies (OCS) . This
synthesised information was also used to identify a set of strong country strategies and high-
quality program/project evaluations allowing for a more in-depth reflection on the key questions
of this review.
Only recent program and project evaluations, conducted during 2013-2015, were selected.
Even though this includes some programs and projects that were ongoing during the initial
years of the OSP, the majority of them have been designed and started before 2013. Only
evaluations that cover (at least some elements of) an influencing approach were selected for
this review. In addition to campaigns (such as GROW) and development projects/programs that
include or are connected to influencing objectives and activities. Since it is virtually impossible
to determine to what extent the shift towards influencing has taken place across Oxfam
affiliates, this selection is deemed acceptable in order to focus on how far the shift is occurring
(when it is occurring), and to some extent on what is working. A shortcoming with the majority
of evaluations is that they tend to focus either on advocacy/campaigns or on development
programs, but almost never on both or the relationship between them (assuming that there was
one, as envisioned by Oxfams One Program Approach). These methodological considerations
will be taken into account for developing guidelines for a future comprehensive evaluation
framework.
Selection Process of Evaluations

Almost half of the evaluations used for this review had already been selected for a
6
comprehensive Sense Making Exercise that reviewed evaluations for all CGs (conducted in
2013-2014). The remainder of evaluations related to CG4 were conducted in 2015. The
following process was undertaken to make a final selection of evaluations.
First, from the pool of methodologically sound evaluations reviewed in the sense-making
exercise, 24 evaluations focusing on food security projects/programs with an influencing
component were retained for the current review. Second, from a pool of 13 additional
3 Maes, Jan (2015). Review of Oxfam GBs Economic Justice Programme (2012-2014). Oxfam GB,
October.
4 Roper, Laura, Snchez de Ocaa, Mnica, Smiaroski, Mary Sue and Rocha, Jasmin (2015). Oxfam
Sense Making Exercise for a Selection of Evaluations 2013-2014. Oxfam International, February.
5 Wareing, Kate (2015). Oxfam Country Strategies Review. Oxfam International, October.
evaluations with a focus on sustainable food (some conducted more recently than those
retained for the sense-making exercise) ten were retained based on methodological quality and
focus on influencing. The selected evaluations were reviewed by focusing on indicative
program/project outcomes of food security and income, and types of program approaches
and influencing efforts.
The purpose of this review is not to add up outcomes across the confederation, but to reflect a
diversity of results related to food security and income outcomes, and of the extent to which a
shift is taking place from service delivery to influencing approaches, as envisioned by the OSP.
The evaluations span a significant number of Oxfam affiliates (at least seven), seven regions
and at least 15 countries. Evaluations range from large multi-million dollar programs to pilot
projects with much smaller budgets, and range from targeting a few hundred to more than one
million people. The majority of evaluations used qualitative approaches, some used mixed
qualitative/quantitative methods. Randomized impact assessments were not available. Finally,
most programs evaluated are not solely focusing on improving food security or incomes, often
focusing on sustainable livelihoods, market development or economic justice programs.
Limits of the Methodology

Since the evaluations selected for this review were conducted between January 2013 and
October 2015, the evaluated projects and programs themselves were mostly started and
sometimes already finished before the OSP 2013-15 timespan. As a result, the evaluations in
this review should not be looked at as if they reflect the new Oxfam (envisioned in the OSP)
versus the old, but they are rather a reflection of trends and changes as they have been
emerging before the OSP and to a lesser extent during first two years in its implementation. On
the other hand, these practices and programs are likely influenced to some extent by the
internal thinking that already existed and ultimately led to the formalization of the OSP. It is
difficult to gauge to what extent this strategic intent to shift from direct service delivery to
influencing was present in many of the projects and programs reviewed for this report, however,
especially because the design often dates from even longer ago.
Quality of the Evaluation Reports

As was the case for the earlier comprehensive sense-making exercise, except for a few cases,
only evaluations considered methodologically sound or exhibiting minor quality issues were
included in the further analyses. Most reports had already been assessed for quality for the
sense-making exercise, and similar quality criteria were applied for the current review. Most
evaluations are strong, but it is important to note that they often did not evaluate food security
and income outcomes, either because the project/program evaluated did not have clearly stated
objectives of food security and individual/household incomes, or because these data were not
available, or simply because the evaluation focused more on activities and outputs (including
relevance, scale and cost-efficiency) instead of outcomes. Most program evaluations included
an outcome assessment of indicators of food security and/or income or intermediary outcome
indicators along impact chains that were assumed as leading to those impacts (such as
increased productivity, access to markets, knowledge, etc.). Most campaign evaluations did not
report on any such indicators close to the expected impact, but focused mostly on effectiveness
of influencing strategies (such as advocacy, mobilization, capacity building), their immediate
results (responses by different target audiences, from government, private sector, civic society
and the public at large), and intermediary outcomes (budget allocations, policies, negotiating
power, etc.)
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3. ARE PROGRAMS AIMING TO
SUPPORT GREATER INCOME AND
FOOD SECURITY SUCCESSFULLY
SHIFTING FROM SERVICE DELIVERY TO
INFLUENCING STRATEGIES TO
ACHIEVE CHANGE AT SCALE?
This section explores whether Oxfam is doing the right things right, i.e. to what extent Oxfams
sustainable food projects/programs have successfully shifted from service delivery to
influencing strategies to achieve change at scale. In order to assess to what extent this shift is
taking place, a brief introduction considers how Oxfam defines influencing and what kind of
guidance it provides on how to shift its work further in that direction. Next, evidence is provided
of the extent to which the intended shift towards influencing (and OPA) is taking place.
The Theory: Oxfams Influencing Concept and Guidelines

Before looking at evidence of how sustainable food programs are moving from direct service
delivery to influencing, it is important to clarify what is meant by these two approaches.
Direct Service Delivery (and Implementation) Strategies
Oxfam does not provide a definition of service delivery, but it clearly refers to programs or
projects where Oxfams role (and that of its partners) consists of providing services (as well as
cash, products, or capital) directly to beneficiaries individually or their organizations. There are
several problems with such approaches. Oxfam should not and cannot sustain the delivery of
services that are the responsibility of either public duty bearers or the market. And, since these
services are often subsidized, they are not sustainable, difficult to scale and likely to distort
markets. Few argue that except in certain emergency responses direct service delivery is not
good practice. Other forms of direct implementation are less direct interventions, such as
training, capacity building of CBOs, womens groups, local government offices, linking producer
groups to processors, etc. However, such teaching how to fish (and even how to sell the fish)
approaches suffer from similar shortcomings (albeit to a lesser extent) as those with direct
service delivery in terms of sustainability and scale.
Rather than defining the boundaries of direct delivery or implementation as compared to

influencing strategies, it makes more sense to look at the underlying limitations, which relate
primarily to sustainability and scale of desired changes. Due to scarcity of funds, direct
implementation approaches are by necessity limited in scale and often unsustainable. This does
not mean that direct implementation is always inappropriate or ineffective: such strategies can
test and demonstrate new models to be replicated, create new learning or present leveraging
mechanisms to reach scale (e.g. jumpstarting a new type of enterprise, market, etc.). Oxfam
GBs Aim 1 strategy document is helpful in that it lists approaches that it will stop doing in its
livelihoods work, such as engaging in direct provision of services (such as microfinance) and
assets (for example livestock), except in emergency situations or unless as an explicit and one-
off means of overcoming a specific, identified barrier to improve power in markets (that is, as a
means to the end of improved, transformed livelihoods), or that are self-contained and not
7
linked to a wider vision of change that can be self-sustaining after our exit.
7 Oxfam, 2010. Aim 1 Strategy 2010 2015: Economic Justice: Sustainable Livelihoods Now and for the
Future. Oxfam internal document
Influencing Strategies
The OSP refers to influencing as a strategy by proposing a worldwide influencing network

(WIN) as an expression of Oxfams enabling role, marking a trend towards working more on
influencing authorities and the powerful, and less on delivering the services for which duty-
8 9
bearers are responsible. The National Influencing Guidelines accompanying the OSP
describe the rationale for influencing as follows: We will only achieve lasting change in the
lives of the hundreds of millions of people living in poverty if we use our limited resources to
influence and enable others. Oxfams work is based on the understanding that unequal power
relations are the underlying driver of inequality, poverty and suffering. Addressing these power
relations is deeply political and gets to the root cause of poverty and injustice. Oxfam seeks to
confront these imbalances of power in order to change policy and practice in ways that improve
the lives of men and women living in poverty.
Box 2 summarizes the key ingredients of the envisioned influencing approach, as described in
the National Influencing Guidelines. Note that the first priority of WIN is to achieve much
stronger influencing at the national level, which has in the past been underemphasized
compared to global influencing.
10
Box 2 Oxfams influencing in a Nutshell
Influencing means: systematic efforts to change power relationships, attitudes, and

beliefs, and the formulation and implementation of official policies, laws/regulations,
budgets, and company policies and practices, in ways that promote more just societies
without poverty.
Influencing includes: leveraging of programme experience, advocacy, and campaigning

(including coalition building, research, policy development, lobbying, media, digital tools),
mobilization (of activists, supporters, citizens), coordinated worldwide communicating and
networking, capacity development (of citizens, partners, civil society, duty bearers),
partnerships and strategic funding. Oxfams program work will be key in providing evidence
to underpin its influencing work.
Oxfams role is: to enable transformational change, as convener and catalyst; opening
political space, building capacity (mainly of organizations of poor people) and sharing
technical expertise, raising funds and public support, leveraging its resources to multiply
funds, providing strategic funding to partners and carrying out humanitarian work. Oxfam
may engage directly with the state and the private sector, but often, its main contribution is
to create safe zones, where peoples organizations can discuss problems and solutions
with the public and private sectors.
Leveraging is narrowly considered above as one way of influencing, as in leveraging of program

experience, but Oxfam increasingly sees leverage as working strategically with others in order
to lever a bigger change than [it] could ever achieve on our own, [by] developing a rich web of
11
mutually beneficial relationships and alliances. Strengthening dynamic multi-stakeholder
networks are seen as increasingly important part of a leverage approach. For the remainder of
this report, influencing strategies in general refer to systematic efforts to change (Box 2) the root
8 Oxfam Strategic Plan 2014-2019

9 ___ (2015). National Influencing Guidelines. Oxfam International
10 ibid
.
11 ___ (2014) Leverage: Reaching scale in our work. Oxfam International
13
causes of poverty rather than addressing the symptoms and Oxfams facilitative role in this,
while focusing on specific influencing approaches related to the CG4 listed earlier in Box 1.
Evidence from Practice

Are programs aiming to support greater income and food security successfully shifting from
service delivery to influencing strategies to achieve change at scale? What are the various
influencing approaches embedded in these programs and campaigns? If this shift is not taking
place in a significant way, what is holding it back? And lastly, when Oxfam has been successful
in shifting its approach, what are promising routes to scale, and what approaches are not
working well? This section provides findings from recent evaluations (2013-2015) on programs
and campaigns related to sustainable food to answer these questions.
Oxfam has traditionally made a distinction between Programs and Campaigns, while recently
making some progress to increase collaboration between the two as part of the One Program
Approach (OPA). At the time of the evaluations reviewed for this report, these two pilars were
still very much strategically and operationally in silos, also resulting in evaluations focusing
almost exclusively on only one of these pilars. In the case of campaigns, which are by definition
influencing, there is no use in evaluating whether there has been a shift from service delivery to
influencing. Instead the evidence can provide insights in changes in approaches used within
campaigns, and how they intend to contribute to impacts in food security and income at scale.
In the case of programs, the evidence can point to the extent of this shift towards influencing
strategies in programs. However, much less evidence has been generatd about the extent to
which programs and campaigns combined (as envisioned by OPA) result in a stronger
influencing strategy to achieve the CG4.
One way to evaluate the extent to which the shift is taking place is by looking to which extent it
is present in the CG4 work evaluated. To gauge the contribution of sustainable food
programming to WIN, the sense-making exercise found that influencing was present in just
12
under a third of evaluations, mostly those of campaing work. The additional evaluations
reviewed for this report show the same trend, with influencing mostly present in campaign work,
and to much more modes amount in programs, as will be explained later. One should note,
however, that a lack of data on influencing in program evaluations does not necessarily mean
that influencing was not a part of these programs; it might simply mean that this was outside the
scope of the evaluation.
The sense-making exercise notes that in terms of alignment with OSP, sustainable food
programming (with or without influencing components) has been strong in increasing the
productivity and resilience of small scale producers, strengthening the focus on women
producers, and influencing national agricultural policy and, to a much more limited degree
(under the Beyond the Brands campaign), the private sector, but at the same time, compared
to the Right to Be Heard CG for instance, the centrality of influencing in many projects and
13
program is less consistently evident under Sustainable Food.
Influencing Approaches in Sustainable Food Programs
There is a shift towards influencing, but direct service delivery strategies have not
disappeared. A review of evaluations conducted between 2010 and 2013 about EJ programs
by OGB notes a gradual shift [] of long-term economic justice programming from reducing
direct delivery to reach beneficiaries (focusing on access to better techniques, inputs and
markets, awareness raising and collective action), towards employing more systems
approaches, influencing strategies and improved (market) governance and that over two
13 ibid
14
thirds of current EJ programmes intend to influence national change. On the other hand, a
15
more recent review of OGB EJ programming found that almost all (evaluated) livelihood
projects directly supported the development of productive smallholder agriculture.
A number of program evaluations reviewed for this report also mention a direct implementation
or service delivery, with hardly any links to campaigning or advocacy efforts, or clear intentions
for scaling up or replicating. The Samunnati Program in Nepal aimed to help people claim their
rights to access and utilization of resources and services on livelihood and empowerment, but
largely through a service delivery approach, including training, capacity building and free
16
services and inputs (seeds). The Integrated Upland Agricultural Livelihoods Programme in
Laos focused on food security and livelihoods by aiming to address challenges in both
production and marketing. Model farmers appeared to have received inputs and were trained
in extension, but they failed to spread these practices to other farmers, because non-model
farmers did not receive the inputs, which the project budget did not support. Even model
farmers reported that the provision of inputs, particularly the more expensive breeding stock,
17
was not of substantial assistance. In both cases, the potential to influence others to replicate
these projects is low.
On the other hand, a number of projects are focusing more on demonstration and learning
instead of implementing direct services, and are linking those with advocacy. The pilot
phase of the Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihood for Vulnerable Ecosystems
(RESOLVE) in Bangladesh focused on creating models to be replicated and scaled up, to
facilitate learning within the region, and to promote evidence for advocacy to achieve policy and
18
practice changes. According to an evaluation the pilot phase was successful in implementing
interventions addressing climate change adaptation and resilient livelihoods, but failed to
produce sufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of these demonstrations due to a
lack of action research. As a result, even though advocacy was planned, it was weakened in its
ability to move to a program at scale.
Market development programs are gaining traction, but they do not always fully exploit
opportunities to influence market actors and enabling environment. There seems to be a
strong increase in the number of Oxfam programs aiming to influence markets, which is
confirmed by a number of evaluations reviewed. Many of these programs use the Making
Markets Work for the Poor (MP4) approach, with a clear intention to move away from direct
provision towards facilitation of more effective and inclusive markets. However, the degree to
which such programs move away from direct delivery of products and services can vary greatly.
Oxfam Novibs Struggle for Land, Water and Food (LWF) multi-country projects included
lobbying the local government to involve their own staff and resources to deliver the training
and provide services, and created a wider interest among the government, and may have
19
spinoff effects to other areas, but the main focus of the program was still on provision of
inputs and services. The Women Farmers Access to Value Chains and Climate Change
20
Adaptation project in Malawi also continues to mix direct services (to 15,000 poor women,
14 Maes, Jan (2015). Review of Oxfam GBs Economic Justice Programme (2012-2014). Oxfam GB,
October.
15 From reflections by David Bright (OGB)
16 Management Innovation, Training and Research Academy (MITRA) (2014) Evaluation for Program for
Promotion of Self-Help Initiative in the Rural Areas (Samunnati) implemented by Sahamati in Nepal -
Final Report. Oxfam Hong Kong, June. [346]
17 Jones, Michael (2013) Final Review of the Oxfam Hong Kong Integrated Upland Agricultural
Livelihoods Programm in Viengxay and Xiengkhor Districts, Houaphan Province, Laos. Oxfam Hong
Kong, May.
18 Zijlstra, Pieter Jan (2013) Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihood for Vulnerable
Ecosystems (RESOLVE). Oxfam Novib, January.
19 Haagsma, Ben and Groverman, Verona (2013) Struggle for Land, Water and Food: Final report
thematic evaluation for Oxfam Novib. Oxfam Novib, August.
20 Mughogho, Brussels, Msosa, Chaudley, and Moyo, Thomas (2015). Malawi Women Farmers Access to
Value Chains and Climate Change Adaptation. End of Project Evaluation. Oxfam GB, September.
15
through provision of processing equipment, training and access to markets) with influencing
(through national level advocacy to improve an enabling environment through harmonization
and development of marketing policies to become more inclusive for women) and
strengthening producer associations to increase their bargaining power.
While some market programs are clearly moving towards influencing, they have not yet been
proven, which is at least partially due to the time it takes to pioneer, validate and prove
innovations. OGBs Enterprise Development Program (EDP), for example, aims to influence
market systems by designing and piloting an effective social investment model as a
blueprint that can be scaled and/or replicated. However, none of its 14 early-stage, rural
enterprises were viable (i.e. profitable) at the time of the evaluation, even though considerable
21
progress in that direction had been made by most. These enterprises have created significant
impact on the lives of individuals and households, who are employed by or participate in these
enterprises supply chains or share in ownership (through cooperative businesses for instance),
but as long as scaling up and replication is not taking place, this model will not have
realized its full potential to move from direct service delivery to an influencing approach.
EDP might not have yet delivered against its promise of systems leverage (e.g. by enticing
other donors and investors to support similar early-stage rural enterprises), it has successfully
22
translated other types of leverage into greater social impact : financial leverage (stretching
philanthropic funds to create more impact, and attracting more investments for the sector),
political leverage (enterprises as vehicles to influence agricultural policy), network leverage
(centre for training, inputs, gender awareness), and organizational leverage for Oxfam (skills
and learning in market engagement and social enterprise development).
Multi-stakeholder networks approaches are emerging as promising strategies for shifting from
direct service delivery towards influencing. An example is described in an evaluation of the
23
Grove to Market program in the West Bank (OPT) , showing how such an approach can bring
together anyone involved in the agricultural sector, NGOs, cooperatives, womens
organizations, policy makers, and private sector actors, to foster dialogue, engage in joint
advocacy, and generate partnerships to help the sector develop with a strong focus on women
and smallholders inclusion and poverty reduction. Activities can include drafting legislation,
monitoring implementation of government agriculture and food security strategies, influencing
private sector engagement with cooperatives, or promoting innovative models (for example in
rural finance). Promising examples exist in many Oxfam countries, e.g. Armenia and Georgia,
and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The shift towards influencing is not complete and encounters some significant challenges that
need to be addressed. These include pressures to achieve short-term results, an insufficient
commitment or ability to reorient the role of projects as small-scale pilots, and insufficient
synergies and collaboration between programs and campaigns as intended by the OPA. The
evaluations reviewed for this report demonstrate that a shift towards influencing was taking
place, but several challenges remained. The need for a longer time for changes to take place
was one of the obstacles to make the shift from direct service delivery projects to influencing
programs. The OGB EJ review notes that some program managers found that sometimes the
imperative to deliver rapid direct impact at scale inhibits the potential to take a longer-term
24
approach. Several interviewees also noted that a multi-stakeholder process to create
21 Bridges Ventures (2013) Oxfam Enterprise Development Programme Review Summary Report. Oxfam
GB, December.
22 ibid
23 Advance Consulting Services (2014). From Grove To Market Olive Oil Program External Midterm
Evaluation Report. Oxfam GB, January.
24 Bridges Ventures (2013) Oxfam Enterprise Development Programme Review Summary Report. Oxfam
GB, December.
(market) governance, increasing producer and womens organizations voices, can enable or
improve governance [] but will take a longer timeframe than the traditional 3-5 year []
25
program . The evaluators of OGBs EDP mentioned that it is unrealistic to expect that
supported enterprises can move from blueprint to scale within five years or less, and more time
is needed to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach.
In some cases, model interventions were not designed with scale in mind, or were not
accompanied with high quality action research to make their promotion (through advocacy
for instance) sufficiently convincing. In Bangladesh, the RESOLVE pilot project produced some
replicable and easily adopted interventions (such as homestead cultivation for landless
households), but other interventions were believed too costly to reproduce at scale (such as
asset transfers for the very poor) or face greater market constraints at scale compared to pilot
26
(often the case when new income activities are promoted). Scaling up certain
innovations/pilot projects (through influencing or other means) is sometimes unrealistic,
because what works at small scale does not necessarily work at larger scale, especially in
market access programs. Equally important is the knowledge management and learning
component of (pilot) programs. The RESOLVE pilot failed to properly evaluate and document
effectiveness and impact of the intervention, weakening its role in advocacy. The advocacy
27
component was formulated clearly in the program design, but taken for granted during
implementation. The evaluation of the RESOLVE pilot project suggested that a strategic
advocacy plan for the program should have been developed to ensure clear messaging, target
28
groups and expected results.
Sometimes the link between pilot project and influencing is weak or unclear. For instance,
29
Supporting Rural Livelihoods and Employment project by OGB in Western Georgia supported
150 households directly through training, advice, capital and productive inputs over a three year
period, while another component of the project involved advocating for a more enabling national
policy environment for small producers. But the intended improvements in the national enabling
environment were at a different scale and would take much longer to take place in order to be of
relevance for the pilot project. At the same time, the pilot project itself still relied heavily on a
service delivery approach to be sufficiently relevant in reinforcing the intended changes in the
enabling environment. A frequently encountered criticism is that there is no strategic framework
or clear impact chain that explains how influencing will lead to the desired outcomes. In Oxfam-
Solidarit Belgiums Laos program it was unclear to which extent advocacy work responded to
30
an organized strategy to influence policy development. In some cases this is the result of not
conducting a deep market system analysis and formulating a logical strategic framework for the
program that coherently links the goal of poverty reduction with a focus on sustainable market
31
system change.
Other challenges relate to implementing effective influencing approaches. The review of

32
Oxfam Novibs SLW program stated that Oxfam and its partners did not have sufficient
25 ibid
26 Zijlstra, Pieter Jan (2013) Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihood for Vulnerable
27 Ibid
28 Ibid
29 ___ (2013). Supporting Rural Livelihoods and Employment in Western Georgia Project Effectiveness
Review. Oxfam GB, October.
30 Coronel, Clia, and Vongsana, Khosada (2013). Final evaluation of Oxfam Solidarity Belgium Laos
Programme 2011- 2013. Oxfam Solidarit Belgium.
31 Advance Consulting Services (2014). From Grove To Market Olive Oil Program External Midterm
32 Haagsma, Ben and Groverman, Verona (2013) Struggle for Land, Water and Food: Final report
17
insights into how advocacy and lobbying contributed to sustainable livelihoods. This is not an
isolated issue and will be elaborated on further in the results section. In addition, partner
organizations might be strong in involving communities in lobbying activities, but might lack
33
sufficient capacity in lobbying upward more complex issues. Developing this capacity
takes time. An evaluation of Oxfam-Solidarit Belgiums program in Laos mentioned that it was
important to adapt methods and tools with the partners in order to adjust to their context and to
34
their capacity. It takes time and efforts to progressively enhance capacities. Oxfams use of
gendered market systems approaches is criticized by some as too heavy-handed, as it often
still involves a lot of direct interventions in capacity building, access to new markets by
investing in new enterprises, etc. The expectation that such efforts will be replicated remains to
be seen in most cases. This heavy-handedness also shows up sometimes in a tendency to be
overly comprehensive in working at all levels of a system (from local to international, from
grassroots producer organizations to governments and companies, from new model
development to capacity building and advocacy) to embed a deeper more transformative
35
change than if we purely worked at one level. This seems overly ambitious, however, and not
fail proof given the fact that each of these activities eventually needs a sustainable exit.
In conclusion, some CG4 programs are beginning use influencing approaches, but the shift is
far from complete. Direct delivery and implementation is not a thing of the past, and some
significant challenges need to be overcome by developing the skills and mindset to use
facilitation and influencing approaches in programs, and by embracing much stronger synergies
with the influencing approaches that continue to reside in campaigns and advocacy siloes. On
the other hand, the reader is reminded that most program evaluations dont mention such
synergies, even though they might exist. At the same time, it is easy to underestimate
influencing work at the heart of Oxfam and partners daily practice, which may not be tagged as
such. In some cases, this relates to the establishment of successful strategic relationships
with unions, private sector actors and local authorities to influence changes in their ideas and
36
behavior that may benefit their engagement with small producers.
Influencing approaches in Sustainable Food Campaigns
Since campaigns and advocacy are by nature influencing strategies (in comparison to long-term
development), they are discussed separately. Unlike development programs, the issue is not
the extent to which a shift has taken place from direct service delivery to influencing, but the
extent to which the GROW and other campaigns were able to focus on sustainable food and
connect to relevant development programs in countries (as envisioned in Oxfams One Program
Approach), as well as the types of influencing (called commitments in the OSP to achieve the
CG4) being used.
Oxfam launched its GROW campaign in June 2011 to tackle food injustice and transform the
food system, in response to the triple challenges of sustainable food production, equity, and
resilience. This broad and still ongoing campaign operates at national, regional and global
levels, while aiming to be regionally or nationally led, across four thematic areas land,
37
investment in small-scale agriculture, climate change and food price volatility.
33 Ibid
34
Coronel, Clia, and Vongsana, Khosada (2013). Final evaluation of Oxfam Solidarity Belgium Laos
Programme 2011- 2013. Oxfam Solidarit Belgium.
35
Advance Consulting Services (2014). From Grove To Market Olive Oil Program External Midterm
36
Oxfam Canada (2013) Final Evaluation, Agricultural Market Growth Project: Assets, Gender and
Economic Empowerment, April 2012-October 2013. Oxfam Canada.
37
OwlRe (2013b) Oxfams GROW Mid-Point External Evaluation, Final Report. Oxfam International,
October.
This food justice campaign set out to bring about three big shifts38: a new global governance
system (where governments top priority is to tackle hunger and vulnerability, and a changed
international governance of trade, food aid, financial markets and climate finance); a new
agriculture future (prioritizing public funding on small-scale production in the south); and a new
ecological future (equitable access to natural resources and a global deal on climate change).
GROWs main focus was on both agricultural policy and corporate practices at the national
level. Improved food security and incomes at scale are not mentioned in these objectives, but
they are generally recognized as critical in the achievement of food security.39
The following findings are distilled from a mid-term evaluation of the global GROW campaign
and Behind the Brands (BtB) initiative, as well as GROW in Honduras, Brazil, Bangladesh,
Nigeria, Ghana and West Africa.
The GROW campaign has focused on building the capacity of civil society (including farmers
and womens organizations) to claim rights and influence policy and securing a number of
promising commitments from policy makers and multinational food companies to be more
inclusive and respectful of the rights of smallholders. A number of pertinent findings related to
40
GROW can be found in the sense-making exercise , and are summarized here. GROW and
related campaigns have been impressive in terms of influencing company policies and
commitments, government policies related to small-scale agriculture and World Bank policies.
The most significant achievement was securing policy changes or commitments on food and
land from governments, corporations, and global bodies in addition to involving rural women
and smallholders in these processes. One of the key roles for Oxfam has been its ability to act
as facilitator and convener, bringing together different organizations in alliances to jointly work
on a campaign. Such alliances sometimes yield successful strategic relationships with
unions, private sector actors and local authorities to influence changes in their ideas and
41
behavior that may benefit their engagement with small producers.
Not all the influencing approaches (CG 4 commitments) are pursued equally, and a lack of
focus and follow-up jeopardize further success in the future. The broad focus of the GROW
campaign is seen by some as too complex and diverging from the original aim, which is on food
justice and an improved food system. In that sense, priorities that emerged from the South
(such as agricultural reform) were not conducive to those from the North (such as company
policies). Moreover, there was concern about long term monitoring and follow-up of these
processes, some of which would span beyond the GROW time frame. This is an important
concern, as this might jeopardize achievement of the intended results in terms of an improved
and just food system. OPA is either underutilized or not fully mastered, but signs of progress
have been noted. In some instances the campaign used the space generated by the program
42
for awareness raising but the program could not get a space within the campaign. There
remains relatively little evidence of engaging the private sector, and there is a lack of tapping
into private sector actors (small entrepreneurs, traders or investors) and forging relationships
among these actors and its target communities. Access to and use of land and water, critical
area for food security, did not receive much attention. Some reasons given were that the topic
38
Bailey, Robert (2011). Growing a Better Future Food Justice in a Resource Constrained World. Oxfam
International, July.
39
These three objectives fall within the eight dimensions deemed critical to achieve food security by the
Food Security Learning Framework. See
http://www.ifad.org/hfs/tools/hfs/fs_frameworkpub/foodsecurity.pdf
40
Roper, Laura, Snchez de Ocaa, Mnica, Smiaroski, Mary Sue and Rocha, Jasmin (2015). Oxfam
41
42
Plataforma Agraria (2014) Evaluacin de la Campaa: Cosechemos Justicia para las Mujeres del
Campo. Oxfam GB, Abril.
19
of land rights was very sensitive [] and that Oxfam did not always have the necessary
43
resources and legal experience.
The objectives of national GROW campaigns are generally in line with those of the global
campaign but customized to the local context, with some campaign goals receiving higher
priority than others. Most pursue a two-pronged strategy by growing or strengthening civil
society movements (especially womens organizations) on family farming and food security on
the one hand, and advocating for governments to increase investments in agriculture (in
accordance with their commitments to the Maputo declaration calling for public investment in
agriculture to reach at least 10% of national budgets), and adopt policies to establish and
protect the rights of smallholders, especially women and ethnic minorities.
The following is a more detailed look at how national GROW campaigns have employed
different influencing strategies, referred to as commitments to achieve the CG4 in the OSP.
Some findings from an evaluation of the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL),
which predated the GROW campaign in Bangladesh, are included as well.
Table 1. GROW Campaign Influencing Approaches compared to CG4 Commitments
OSP Commitments to achieve CG4 Evidence of Influencing Approaches

Promote increased investment in female Strong emphasis. Campaigns promoted public (and to a
smallholders, support rural womens lesser extent) private sector policies and investments in a
organizations and advocate for positive just and sustainable food system. Much effort went into
changes in policies and beliefs about strengthening civil society movements on family farming and
womens roles. Facilitate effective food security, with a particular focus on womens organiza-
tions, often through direct support and capacity building,
economic organization and promotions strengthening institutional, advocacy and campaigning ca-
of womens voices in the economic 44
pacity of farmers organizations in Ghana. Food Female
sphere Hero (FFH) awards were organized to raise the profile of
45
small scale female farmers.
Promote policies that strengthen 46

Strong emphasis. In Nigeria , a multi-pronged strategy to
resilience through risk analysis, reducing achieve this consisted of developing peoples skills and
price volatility for basic food commodities adaptive tools, supporting policies and processes that pre-
and providing protection for the most pare people for emergencies, and strengthen the relation-
ship between pastoralists and small scale farmers by provid-
ing them with platforms for engagement and dialogue.
A similar strategy was taken in Brazil to support the resili-
ence of small-scale farmers, especially women through ca-
pacity building for their organizations, support direct advo-
cacy, and do research on the relations of climate change
47
and an unjust and broken food system.
Oxfam acts as facilitator or broker and Strong emphasis. There is a lot of momentum in most coun-
convene multi-stakeholder groups to try campaigns to build alliances and convene multi-
increase impact by building coalitions for stakeholder networks. In Nigeria the Voices for Food Securi-
change ty (VFS) coalition (consisting of 16 local civil society groups
and small-scale farmers organizations) is campaigning for
food security and developed a five year strategy.
Influence states to attract investment and Moderate emphasis. Besides putting pressure on govern-
support development of domestic ments to meet their commitments to the Maputo agreement,
43
October.
44
Ibid
45
Ibid
46
Ibid.
47
Watson, Gabrielle (2015). Oxfam in Brazil GROW Campaign 2011-2014. Review and Future Options.
Oxfam, February.
markets and challenge the private sector there is little evidence of influencing states to attract invest-
to develop inclusive business models ments for agriculture of for encouraging the private sector to
develop inclusive business models.
Promote scalable agricultural production Moderate emphasis. Even if sustainable food programs in
systems that sustainably increase yield, the same countries would demonstrate specific innovative
resilience and adaptation to climate agricultural systems, there is no mention of promoting those,
change, from subsistence farmers to which would point to the lack of strong One Program Ap-
market-based small-scale producers proach. However, GROW Brazil supported farmers organi-
zation to promote promote just and sustainable agriculture
policies, especially on agro-ecology and pro-poor climate
resilience [] which resulted in the enactment of the Na-
48
tional Plan for Agro-ecology and Organic Production .
Enable communities to manage land and Weak attention. Some exceptions are noted. In Ghana, the
water resources sustainably and GROW campaign advocated for policy changes that
strengthen the livelihoods of those most strengthen the land and natural resources rights of women
chronically at risk of crisis in priority-1 and other small-scale food producers and to stop investors
countries and corporations engaging in irresponsible large scale land
acquisitions.
Influence governments, business and Weak attention. Oxfam Ghana promoted private sector fi-
multilateral organizations to increase nancing mechanisms for a national agricultural sector in-
financial flows to smallholder agriculture vestment plan focusing on small-scale food producers, es-
and promote policies to benefit the poor pecially women, and increased quality public and donor fi-
by rebalancing investment and services nancing of the national agricultural sector investment plan
focused on small-scale food producers in line with the Ma-
between small and large scale puto Declaration (to devote 10% of its budget to agriculture
production by December 2015).
49
Improve donor food policies, especially Weak attention. The Ghana campaign aims for increased
in fragile states quality donor financing of the national agricultural sector in-
vestment plan.
Empower small-scale producers to No mention.

improve trade regulation, to enter and
influence Fair Trade value chains
Facilitate the development of innovative No mention.
rural finance models and consumer and
fair trade movements, particularly in the
BRICSAMs and major cities
Table 1 shows that not all commitments have received the same level of attention. The
strongest emphasis was on supporting rural organizations, especially of women, and advocacy
for positive changes in policies to include their interests, including policies to strengthen
resilience and reduce volatility of food prices. As part of this, Oxfams role has increasingly
become one facilitator of multi-stakeholder approaches and broker of broad based alliances.
There is less evidence about Oxfams role in influencing states to support development of
domestic markets and challenging the private sector to develop inclusive business models.
Surprisingly, relatively little attention appears to go to the promotion of more productive and
resilient agricultural models. It is not clear from the evaluations to what extent Oxfam is
influencing donor food policies, and there is no mention about improving trade regulation or
developmnent of innovative rural finance models. Reasons for emphasizing various influencing
approaches different are not given, and might depend on local context and objectives. But there
is also a sense that the selection of different approaches is not always based on strong theories
of change. Moreover, the sense-making exercise further points out that while Oxfam is
supporting much more influencing work at the national level, work remains to be done on
48
Oxfam, February.
49
Saragoussi, Muriel (2014). GROW Campaign West Africa: Ghana and Nigeria. Mid-term evaluation.
Oxfam Novib, March.
21
articulation of a holistic model that integrates influencing between global and local
50
level.
The campaigns evaluated for this report also face some challenges, including a lack of sufficient
focus, insufficient follow-up once initial results appear, and lack of local ownership. The first
two challenges are interrelated and were raised frequently. Lots of initiatives are taking place, at
different levels, and targeted at different audiences, but they are not always coordinated or
connected. Some campaigns, but not all, established a theory of change (ToC). Instead of
aiming for an overly comprehensive approach to influencing, a carefully designed ToC can help
in identifying leverage points that have the potential for systemic changes. Moreover, a ToC is a
living tool and needs to be revised periodically as achievements are realized or as
circumstances change. Other weaknesses included a lack of synergies with other campaigns
and development programs, and insufficient attention to ensure sustainability of the campaign
beyond the funding period.
Lack of follow-up is a recurring problem. After making progress in engaging the private sector in
land and sugar issues in Brazil, an evaluation cautioned that failure to walk the last mile with
local communities and use Oxfams voice to help see the cases through to resolution will
reinforce the belief that it is not possible to challenge unjust corporate practices and win. 51 In
Bangladesh, a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was a key achievement to
52
draw attention to smallholders, but once formulated there was a lack of significant follow-up.
Both evaluations warn that this also presents a potential brand risk for Oxfam.
Ownership and sustainability were identified as a serious concern in the evaluation of the
Bangladesh GROW campaign. The evaluators did not see a clear direction among partners to
rise up to the expectation of Oxfam GROW team to own the campaign and to ensure long term
53
sustainability. According to the same evaluation, this is partly due to lack of capacity issue
but probably more with political will of the stakeholders. Another challenge has been staff
turnover in Oxfams campaign teams, which was an issue in Nigeria and Bangladesh. The
sense-making exercise postulated that inadequate staffing and high turnover rates may have
limited Oxfams technical capacity to steer the campaign. Lastly, lack of collaboration with the
private sector (on agriculture marketing, pricing infrastructure etc.) falls short from expectations,
but some Oxfam partners and allies question the effectiveness of private sector advocacy to
54
bring about significant change.
4. ARE RECENT CG4 PROGRAMS

IMPROVING INCOME AND FOOD
SECURITY AT SCALE?
This section explores where is it working and under which conditions, i.e. how successful are
CG4 related programs and campaigns at improving income and food security at scale. As has
been stated in the introduction, with only two years into the OSP it is unrealistic to expect to
observe whether systemic changes at scale are indeed materializing, especially if they are the
intended result of a shift away from direct service delivery to influencing strategies, most of
50
51
Oxfam, February.
52
Halim, Ujjaini, and Palli, R.K. Mission (2015). Mid-term Review for GROW Campaign in Bangladesh.
Oxfam, June.
53
Ibid
54
Oxfam, February.
which predate the OSP. However, even if data on food security and income are scarce, this
section explores if any (common) intermediary outcomes were defined in program and
campaign designs, if they are achieved, and to what extent they are indicative of achieving
anticipated impact in the future.
Even more direct service delivery programs typically show only modest impacts in terms of food
security and incomes. Even though it seems reasonable to expect that more direct interventions
lead to more direct results within a shorter timeframe, as compared to what can be expected
from less direct influencing approaches, the results in terms of incomes and food security are
often not impressive. Some evaluations speculate that not enough time has passed for these
results to emerge. While the intended impact is often not achieved (in the relatively short time
between project and evaluation), most projects/programs are achieving other outcomes
(increased farmer participation in value chains, improved access to credit and other resources,
even improve material wellbeing, improved attitudes perceptions of womens empowerment and
increased female self-efficacy). The comprehensive sense-making exercise states Oxfams
support is contributing to livelihoods becoming more resilient and helping vulnerable
communities, particularly women-headed households, maintain their assets, access food, have
better savings, better access to credit, and access knowledge.55 But contributing to does not
equal resulting in impact, and while changes in agricultural practices are becoming more
generalized, there is mixed evidence that this is translating to better yields and even less
evidence that it is leading to better incomes, among other things, because such an increase
depends on other significant factors, often outside project control.56
This is echoed by a number of evaluations for this review. The evaluation of the Agricultural
Market Growth Ethiopia: Assets, Gender and Economic Empowerment project, show that most
outcomes were successfully achieved, although an increase in income was only starting to
57
take place given the short timeframe of the project. The OGB EJ review reports modest
household income increases, noting that changes in policy or norms take a long time to
materialize, and even longer before poor women and smallholders experience tangible, positive
58
outcomes. Considering that household incomes were predominantly evaluated in direct
service delivery programs, the report puts out the question whether a greater focus on
influencing would not further reduce this modest impact on income, and recommends that
leveraging solutions to income generation or the reduction of negative impacts on income need
59
to be clearly articulated and evaluated alongside increase advocacy in EJ programme design.
And in the case of OGBs Enterprise Development Program (EDP), results include increased
farmer membership, improved access to credit and other resources that increase economic
empowerment, improved material wellbeing, improved attitudes towards women and
60
perceptions of womens empowerment and increased female self-efficacy , but no evidence
was available on improved outcomes for food security and income.
It is plausible that such intermediary outcomes offer great potential to eventually translate into
the intended impact, but additional evidence (which should also be obtained by allowing more
time between intervention and assessment) is needed to demonstrate this. When positive
results are mentioned, they remain at the scale of the project, and there is no information on
how such results will be maintained and scale up through influencing.
55
56
Ibid.
57
58
Maes, Jan (2015). Review of Oxfam GBs Economic Justice Programme (2012-2014). Oxfam GB,
October.
59
Ibid.
60
Bridges Ventures (2013) Oxfam Enterprise Development Programme Review Summary Report. Oxfam
GB, December.
23
Some qualitative program evaluations, however, are more positive about achieving food
61
security and/or income outcomes, but the data are less reliable. An evaluation of the
Samunnati Program in Nepal mentions that impacts were observed at the community level
including increased nutrient food production and consumption, and an assessment of
RESOLVE in Bangladesh achieved a positive impact on income, food security and
nutrition, but adds that this is not supported with reliable data. Similarly, Oxfam Novibs SLW
program reports increases in yield and incomes, but those were based on interviews with
62
farmers and not based on quantitative data.
Campaigns and programs with a demonstrated shift towards influencing offer little
evidence so far on improved food security and incomes, but focus on mainly on the
immediate results and intermediary outcomes from influencing approaches. As mentioned
earlier, it is not realistic to expect to see much concrete evidence of improved food security,
incomes and resilience within a few years of influencing strategies within the CG4. In fact, one
might even speculate that if such outcomes would appear in such a short time span, the
strategy might very well have included some direct services and support. There is no mention in
the sense-making exercise about food security and household income outcomes as the result of
campaigns. GROW and the Behind the Brands (BtB) campaign yielded results in influencing
policy changes in favor of smallholder agriculture, both at the level of government and private
sector (multinationals), but there is no reporting of increased financial flows to smallholder
63
agriculture, let alone improved food security or higher incomes for smallholder farmers. The
OGB EJ review shows that influencing and leveraging change is at the core of EJs theory of
64
change [], but the evidence of achieving changes at scale is limited. If impact is mentioned
at all, it is hypothesized in vague terms, such as in an evaluation of the BtB campaign that
states that if met, the asks from multinationals would have concrete impacts on workers,
65
women and the environment. The fact that this evidence is not (yet) available does not mean
that such results are unrealistic, but it is concerning that there is no mention of plans to measure
those in the future.
Most campaign evaluations mention the achievement of intermediary outcomes, such as

increased support to small-scale food producers to build movements, new platforms for civil
society dialogues and effective engagement with policy/decision makers, more inclusive
agricultural policies, etc. At the time of the evaluations (mid-term evaluation of global GROW
campaign and country level GROW campaigns), the achievements were mostly related to
developing the awareness and capacity of smallholder farmers and their organizations to
engage in policy deliberation, which resulted in some modest policy achievements. For
66
instance, in Brazil womens peasant organizations were able to articulate and insert their
67
agendas in wider agricultural policy debates. In Ghana , a network of farmers organizations
was able to engage in a dialogue with the parliament about funding and policies for smallholder
68
farming. In Bangladesh , a Right to Food Network was established, which helped a law
61
Management Innovation, Training and Research Academy (MITRA) (2014) Evaluation for Program for
Promotion of Self-Help Initiative in the Rural Areas (Samunnati) implemented by Sahamati in Nepal -
Final Report. Oxfam Hong Kong, June. [346]
62
Haagsma, Ben and Groverman, Verona (2013) Struggle for Land, Water and Food: Final report thematic
evaluation for Oxfam Novib. Oxfam Novib, August.
63
October.
64
October.
64
Maes, Jan (2015). Review of Oxfam GBs Economic Justice Programme (2012-2014). Oxfam GB,
October.
66
Reference
67
Saragoussi, Muriel (2014). GROW Campaign West Africa: Ghana and Nigeria. Mid-term evaluation.
Oxfam Novib, March.
68
Halim, Ujjaini, and Palli, R.K. Mission (2015). Mid-term Review for GROW Campaign in Bangladesh.
Oxfam, June.
commission to draft the first of its kind Right to Food Bill. As mentioned earlier, the most
important achievement of the GROW campaign was securing policy changes or commitments
on food and land from governments and corporations, and the role played by rural women in
achieving these.
These results are still far removed from the objectives of achieving CG4, which aim to intensify
small-scale productions systems and make them more resilient, to economically empower rural
women, and result in resilient livelihoods, greater food security and participation in agricultural
markets. As significant as the initial results may be, there is no guarantee that those outcomes
are achievable, as there are numerous unknown hurdles and detours on the way. Some
evaluations express a concern that campaign themes shift too often and too soon, and that
there is a danger of not following up on these early achievements. The BtB evaluation for
instance mentions that it would take time and effort to fill the gaps between intended policies
69
and practices , which is only the beginning phase of an impact chain leading to improved food
security of poor people involved in these companies value chains. The Ghana OCS warns that
a lot has been achieved under the GROW Campaign but will be lost if the campaign were not
sustained.
5. HOW ARE OXFAM COUNTRY

STRATEGIES PLANNING TO SHIFT
TOWARDS INFLUENCING FOR
ACHIEVING THE CG4?
Oxfam Country Strategies allow us to look forward and draw actionable lessons and
recommendations for programming and program support as we move forward. The following
findings are derived from a number OCS and a recent review of OCS. Since they are only
strategies, they do not provide evidence about the extent to which a shift from service delivery
to influencing is taking place, but they can illustrate how country offices are planning to continue
making that shift towards a strong influencing strategy at the core of its CG4 work. The findings
70
are based on a set of OCS deemed particularly strong in expressing their intention to use
influencing as a key strategy for achieving the CG4 among other change goals. Rather than
presenting a representative picture, the following analysis is meant to identify good practice and
thinking found in high-quality OCSs.
71
A recent review of OCS indicates a much greater focus on advocacy on policy issues and
on the engagement of farmers groups in decision making processes, while less direct work
is planned with specific groups of farmers to increase productivity and link to value chains.
Almost every OCS reviewed states clearly that the shift from direct programs to influencing
is central to its county strategy, in line with the OSP. The overwhelming focus of planned
advocacy and voice work is with state institutions at both national and local levels. The
Bangladesh OCS adds that the shift towards more influencing should also become a more
significant part of the work that its local partner NGOs will move from the predominantly
service-delivery approach adopted by most NGOs in Bangladesh to a more sophisticated
rights-based, wellbeing focus that leverages service provision to support a more effective state
that empowers the poor, enabling them to claim their rights from complementary government,
private and third sector providers of services.
69
OwlRe (2013a) External Assessment - Behind the Brands. Oxfam International, November.
70
These countries are: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru,
Vietnam and Zambia.
71
Wareing, Kate (2015). Oxfam Country Strategies Review. Oxfam International, October.
25
Development programs are increasingly seen as demonstration pilots to provide evidence
and leverage influencing. Influencing and long-term programming are also seen as linked
instead of separate activities. At the same time, some OCS caution against an advocacy only
approach at the risk of losing touch with the women and smallholders whose wellbeing Oxfam
is promoting in the first place. The Ghana OCS plans to incorporate some community based
work within project portfolios, with Oxfam role being working within consortia, as facilitator and
broker of change (not service deliverer). The same OCS also adds, however, that direct
service delivery might still have a role, if no other source available and as long as it remains
targeted and time-bound. Such exception remains vague and does not address sustainability of
such interventions, leaving the door open to potentially large direct service delivery programs,
with limited demonstration potential. The Ethiopia OCS refers to pilot programs as threats of
good examples to inform appropriate influencing actions to bring about change at scale. Not all
OCS plan to reduce the role of development programs to piloting innovative approaches as
strongly, however. The Peru OCS only goes as far as always combining its programmatic work
with campaigns and advocacy.
Most OCSs express a four-pronged approach in their Influencing Strategy, like this one from
Vietnam for instance:
1. Leveraging or using Oxfams program experience to drive large-scale solutions;
2. Advocacy and campaigning (includes coalition building, research, policy development,
lobbying, media, and digital tools);
3. Support movements/mobilization of rights-holders, activists, supporters, and citizens
(ensuring that women and their organizations are included and their voices heard);
4. Improved governance, building the capacity of institutions to engage the marginalized, and
creating spaces for poor or marginalized people to influence institutions;
Most OCS are deliberately planning to move influencing to the center. The Bangladesh OCS
intends to embed influencing into all programmes, make it a key element of every role and write
it into job descriptions. The Nicaragua OCS plans to focus on structure, culture and skills to
make influencing its core strategy. Capacity building is also seen as an essential ingredient to a
successful shift towards influencing. The Laos OCS considers its primary strategic task to help
develop a capable, vibrant and viable civil society. Others seem to move away from this kind of
continued support and focus more on the other side of the equation, government and private
sector. For instance, the Zambia OCS intends to move away from developing the farmers and
linking them to markets to focus on influencing greater investment into the sector from both
private and public sector [...] and influencing the policy environment for the development of
small holder farmers to ensure access to services, inputs and markets.
Alignment of interests is a major theme, and Oxfam often sees its role as the convener and
broke of alliances or multi-stakeholder networks that cut across sectors. The Ghana OCS
identifies the State (authorities), traditional authorities and the private sector including civil
society as the three groups that can influence policy and investments linked to agriculture, food
security and land and natural resources and states that change can happen when the
interests and incentives of these groups are made to align, and coalitions for change form that
cut across them.
On the other hand, OCS tend to lack specific targets and outcomes. Influencing is embedded
across change goals in most OCS documents. [] but the majority was still very generic about
targets and will not be able to assess their success in delivery against the OCS in specific
72
terms. Some of the reasons for this are that OCS are built on a too generic power analysis
and utopian theories of change. The weaknesses in most strategies are how that visionary
change is coupled with a focus on what the most is that can be achieved within a five-year
72
Ibid
73
window. The Ethiopia OCS is much less vague in its five year ambitions as it anticipates and
quantifies impact in its main outcome areas by 2020 as follows: at least a 15% increase in
purchasing power (real income) and improved food security, among others. Such specific (and
ambitious) targets for food security and income outcomes are the exception rather than the rule,
however.
Instead, some OCS warn that influencing takes time for systemic changes to emerge. The
Ghana OCS for instance, mentions that policy change, reform of traditional practices, etc.
cannot be influenced within a short time [] and this requires that Oxfam and its partners are
committed to a long haul when doing advocacy. They tend to focus on intermediary outcomes
rather than the expected impact of the CG4. There are some recurring intermediary outcomes,
such as more empowered citizenry, demonstrations of alternative models, more inclusive and
effective policies, etc. but these tend to be vague, and they dont guarantee ultimate success,
even though they are plausible steps in the right direction. The role that Oxfam intends to play
tends to be equally vague: designing and demonstrating innovative models, facilitating learning,
strengthening poor peoples organizations, facilitating alliances. Many OCS also tend to take an
overly comprehensive approach by listing an almost endless number of intermediary outcomes,
and the activities that are planned to achieve those. Such an overly comprehensive strategy
may result in a lack of focus, a tendency to continue direct support to achieve the many
intended outcomes, and inability to evaluate success. Most OCS offer generic good practice
evaluations, but lack a clear focus on which indicators or outcomes need to be monitored to
gauge progress towards desired objectives and impact.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of this review was to evaluate how Oxfam is measuring up against Change Goal 4
(Sustainable Food) of the 2013-2019 OSP, as it is going into its third year. The review analysed
how successful the shift from service delivery to influencing strategies has been so far, and how
much progress has been made in terms of achieving greater food security and income at scale.
In terms of the planned strategic shift from service delivery to influencing, this review also
analyses Oxfam Country Strategies (OCS) to gauge whether they are firmly committing to this
new way of doing things. This is a first review of CG4, and its findings may contribute to
additional guidelines for achieving (and evaluating) the expected impact of CG4 by 2020.
In response to the first question, there was already a shift taking place from service delivery
to influencing in CG4 programming, even before the OSP came into effect. The evaluations
used for this review indicate that this shift is far from complete and faces some important
challenges. Long term programs and campaigns are not yet sufficiently linked to maximize
influencing and make it the central strategy to achieve the CG4. Programs and Campaigns are
still being implemented to a large extent in siloes, and the evaluations available for this review
reflect this by focusing on either one or the other.
Programs show a shift towards influencing, but direct delivery and implementation
strategies are still prominent. On the other hand, a number of projects are focusing more on
demonstration and learning instead of implementing direct services, and are linking those with
advocacy. Market development programs are gaining traction, but they do not always fully
exploit opportunities to influence market actors and enabling environment. Remaining
challenges for programs to make influencing their core strategy include continuing pressures
to achieve short-term results, an insufficient commitment or ability to reorient the role of
projects as small-scale pilots, and insufficient synergies and collaboration between
programs and campaigns as intended by the OPA.
73
Ibid
27
Campaigns have focused mostly on building the capacity of civil society (including farmers
and womens organizations) to claim rights and influence policy, but face some critical
challenges, including a lack of focus, follow-up, and local ownership.
A review of recent OCS shows a clear commitment towards further extending the shift from
service delivery to influencing to achieve the impact expected by CG4. There is a a much
greater focus on advocacy and engagement of farmers groups in decision making
processes, while there is an intention to view projects as learning and demonstration pilots to
leverage influencing. Influencing and long-term programming are also seen as linked
instead of separate activities.
Evidence remains scarce about the extent that CG4 programs and campaigns are
successful at improving income and food security at scale. With only two years into the
current OSP one should not expect to observe whether expected impact at scale is already
emerging. Moreover, since most evaluations reflect on projects and campaigns implemented
before the OSP took effect, the findings can only inform about the results from already existing
programs and campaigns that had already started to shift towards increased use of influencing
strategies.
Direct delivery/implementation approaches have only produced modest results in terms of

food security and incomes; indirect influencing strategies (like the GROW campaign) are
hardly showing any such impacts. This is not surprising given the longer time that would be
required to see these kind of results, but there are doubts whether this type of impact can be
realistically achieved at scale within the timeframe of the OSP, and whether they can even be
measured.
7. RECOMMENDATIONS
Future programs need to overcome some of the key obstacles that are still preventing a
stronger emphasis on influencing. There is a need to redirect the role of programs further in
function of an influencing agenda (through demonstration, evidence gathering and focus on
replicability and scalability). Such a shift requires that programs receive adequate support for
communication, research, MEL and advocacy: Oxfam needs to further invest in this and make a
case to its donors that their financial support and involvement is equally critical to achieve this.
It is not only necessary to move away from direct service delivery, but also from direct
implementation to facilitation of processes that build capacity of smallholders to exert their
rights, governments and private sector to take up their responsibilities, and market systems to
become more inclusive and efficient. This should not only apply to programs but also to
campaigns, i.e. to move away from specific outcomes (e.g. commitment by a specific
multinational company to respect rights of smallholder farmers) to systemic changes (e.g.
improved economic governance in market systems, based on the coordinated efforts of multiple
stakeholders).
Both long-term programs and advocacy and campaigning work need to be much closer
linked (as envisioned by OPA) and stop being regarded as two separate pillars to achieve CG4.
The skills, knowledge, tool, theories of change, MEAL and organizational structures underlying
these two pillars (and for that matter also the third pillar of humanitarian response) need to
merge further to pursue a holistic market based approach, that can be tailored to local
circumstances and adapted frequently based upon new learning and changing circumstances.
The focus should be on changing the enabling environment (including norms and attitudes),
strengthening civic society, as well as demonstrating replicable or scalable innovations (in
business, farm and value chain models, collective action models, public private partnerships,
but also in advocacy and campaign models, etc.) through engaging government, civil society,
and, more forcefully, the private sector. Since Oxfam alone cannot implement or even
orchestrate such a holistic approach, it needs to set a clear focus for its role, which is
increasingly related to supporting multiple stakeholder networks to facilitate systemic changes.
While moving from improving the lives of poor people through direct interventions to facilitating
systemic transformations, direct outcome measures on Oxfams target populations, including
the CG 4 indicative outcomes, need to be replaced with indirect, intermediary outcomes
that measure whether market systems are transformed to become more inclusive and fair for
the poor. The need for a more holistic market based approach and integration of long-term
development programs and advocacy and campaigns also requires that future evaluations take
a more holistic approach, instead of focusing on either one or the other (which still seems to be
the norm). Guidelines for a new framework to evaluate whether CG 4 is being achieved will be
provided in Section 8.
Country strategies need to more clearly determine which objectives are of highest priority to
achieve key intermediary outcomes, and what Oxfams role should be. Theories of change need
to be better understood and articulated, and should include a better understanding of which
intermediary outcomes matter most, and how they relate to systemic changes. Since impact
pathways are seldom linear and predictable, a more flexible implementation is required that
allows for continuously adapting actions to new learning.
29
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___ (2014) Leverage: Reaching scale in our work. Oxfam International.
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Bailey, Robert (2011). Growing a Better Future Food Justice in a Resource Constrained
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Medios de Vida en Centro Amrica Informe Final. Oxfam Solidarit, May.
Coronel, Clia, and Vongsana, Khosada (2013). Final evaluation of Oxfam Solidarity Belgium
Laos Programme 2011- 2013. Oxfam Solidarit Belgium.
Haagsma, Ben and Groverman, Verona (2013) Struggle for Land, Water and Food: Final report
Halim, Ujjaini, and Palli, R.K. Mission (2015). Mid-term Review for GROW Campaign in
Bangladesh. Oxfam, June.
Hidayati, Nur, Susilowati, Ima, Esselink, Maaike, and ResultsinHealth (2014) Restoring Coastal
Livelihoods Project (RCL): Building Social and Ecological Resilience in the Mangrove
Ecosystem in South Sulawesi (2010-2015) - Documenting Gender Mainstreaming in Livelihood
Component of RCL Project. Oxfam Canada, February.
Jones, Michael (2013) Final Review of the Oxfam Hong Kong Integrated Upland Agricultural
Livelihoods Programm in Viengxay and Xiengkhor Districts, Houaphan Province, Laos. Oxfam
Hong Kong, May.
Management Innovation, Training and Research Academy (MITRA) (2014) Evaluation for
Program for Promotion of Self-Help Initiative in the Rural Areas (Samunnati) implemented by
Sahamati in Nepal - Final Report. Oxfam Hong Kong, June. [346]
Maes, Jan (2015). Review of Oxfam GBs Economic Justice Programme (2012-2014). Oxfam
GB, October.
Mughogho, Brussels, Msosa, Chaudley, and Moyo, Thomas (2015). Malawi Women Farmers
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31
Oxfam Research Reports
Oxfam Research Reports are written to share research results, to contribute to public debate and to invite
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For more information, or to comment on this report, email [XXX research contact or author email if needed]
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FEBRUARY 2016

1 See OSP here: https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/story/oxfam-strategic-

Change Goal 4 - Sustainable Food

Sustainable Food Objectives for 2019

Expected impact by 2019

Box 1. Influencing Approaches in OSP to Achieve Change Goal 4 Sustainable

Promote scalable agricultural production systems that sustainably increase yield,

Intended Audiences and Uses for this Review

an understanding of what Oxfam has to do differently to be able to contribute to the change

Selection Process of Evaluations

Limits of the Methodology

Quality of the Evaluation Reports

The Theory: Oxfams Influencing Concept and Guidelines

Direct Service Delivery (and Implementation) Strategies

Rather than defining the boundaries of direct delivery or implementation as compared to

The OSP refers to influencing as a strategy by proposing a worldwide influencing network

Influencing means: systematic efforts to change power relationships, attitudes, and

Influencing includes: leveraging of programme experience, advocacy, and campaigning

Leveraging is narrowly considered above as one way of influencing, as in leveraging of program

8 Oxfam Strategic Plan 2014-2019

Evidence from Practice

Influencing Approaches in Sustainable Food Programs

Other challenges relate to implementing effective influencing approaches. The review of

Influencing approaches in Sustainable Food Campaigns

Table 1. GROW Campaign Influencing Approaches compared to CG4 Commitments

OSP Commitments to achieve CG4 Evidence of Influencing Approaches

Promote policies that strengthen 46

Empower small-scale producers to No mention.

4. ARE RECENT CG4 PROGRAMS

Most campaign evaluations mention the achievement of intermediary outcomes, such as

5. HOW ARE OXFAM COUNTRY

Direct delivery/implementation approaches have only produced modest results in terms of

___ (2013). Oxfam Strategic Plan 2014-201. Oxfam International

___ (2014) Leverage: Reaching scale in our work. Oxfam International.

___ (2015). National Influencing Guidelines. Oxfam International

Oxfam International Month 20XX

The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

Oxfam America (www.oxfamamerica.org)

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